Fly fishing

Being a fly fisherman, lots of people have asked if I ever wanted to be a guide.

 I don't think I would ever want to be a guide but I do see lots of similarities between a guide and a great classroom teacher. Guides only get paid if their customers catch fish. Think about that, there's a lot of demands on a guide. Some of the people that come to fish might be a first timer, some people might have fished thousands of times and don't take criticism or advice very well.   Sometimes the fish are not biting and lead you to enjoying  the day for what else you can learn from it . There are so many variables on a fishing trip; flies, adjusting the leader, and more bugs hiding under rocks and this is all part of the allure of fly fishing.
So a guide compared to a teacher is really not that much of a stretch. Think about all the great teachers you have seen. Did they like preparing, did they get excited preparing that great lesson?  I bet they did! Does every great teacher prepare for dealing with the student that comes in with limited or no background knowledge as well as a student who knows everything and must be challenged to push them forward, I think they do. And a great teachers is always looking under the rocks trying to find new ways to catch fish to get a students on board.
But the difference between a teacher and a guide to me is simple,  guides only keep their job if they produce.  The really good guides make their money getting everyone to catch fish no matter what the weather conditions are, no matter what the customers background knowledge is.  Can you imagine a guide saying,  "its your families fault you're not catching fish."  But oftentimes teachers let themselves get caught in the game of saying well they come from this type of home or the teacher before didn't do their job or blah blah blah blah so maybe teachers wouldn't make the greatest guides but I think the best teachers could be great guides.

What we can learn from Movie previews as we get close to the end of another school year.

I recently went to a  movie with my kids and they spent time exploring the preview posters while we waited.  Than before the movie started we watched the upcoming previews on the screen.  My children kept telling me, "that looks good" and "we have to see that one".

So as I ponder what we do in class and know we often spend time teaching bell to bell, I am asking would we be better off spending more quality time building anticipation for tomorrow's lesson,  like movie previews?  Tomorrows ideas can take on a flipped classrooms personality but not necessarily meaning just watching videos previews of tomorrow's lesson.
The power of text messaging,  Facebook post, Twitter messages or Snap chat messages can be enough to entice and get students and parents excited about what's coming.  Cel.ly is another great tool that makes this possible for the preview mentality.  

One of the better examples I have of using Cel.ly was sending out directions a half hour before class started just to get kids to start thinking and searching the internet to research before class began.
The idea of previewing is it about giving them homework to take some time outside of school and making a more efficient use of the time during the day and getting super excited about what's coming the preview stage allows us to call upon all of their anchor points that we are trying to build up.

 New movies are often months from being released and yet we get excited and get ready for it.  As summer approaches we have a great opportunity to build a preview for our students and parents.  Using time in the last few weeks to get students and families connected and anticipating next year is a great way to end on a positive and slow or stop the summer brain drain.

How?  Class Facebook pages for next years class is a simple and easy option.  With parents and students(if they are over 13)  connected to your promotion page you can run wild.  Post instagram/posters of events coming the first months of the year.  Videos or samples of great activities past students have done.  The promotion page will allow us to open communication and prepare them for the next great educational experience.

When you go to the next movie ask yourself if your students are as excited for your class as they are for the next __________ movie?  If not, Why?  

Any great examples of teachers using this model please share!

Educations love affair with consuming technology.

Take a minute to look at the technology in your school.  How much of the technology you see is used for helping students foster 21st Century skills? Creativity and Innovation? Critical thinking & Problem solving? Communication and Collaboration?  What did you see?

A recent article from the Post and Courier from Charleston County highlights this educational mindset.  "I don't see a downside to iPads," said Travis Benintendo, principal of Haut Gap Middle, where every student has an iPad. "It's just another tool to deliver the curriculum. We want kids to be engaged, and iPads allow us to do that."  Delivering the curriculum is dangerously close to eliminating what teachers are needed for.

As education continues to add technology it becomes more apparent that we use more tools that allow consumption.  The classroom is changing, the bells and whistles are evolving but is a chalk board  that different from a smart board?  Is watching films from the spools that different from YouTube?  Of course we miss the clicking of the spools.  Is submitting a worksheet that much different from emailing it or submitting it in a dropbox?  Think of all the ways students use technology to consume education?

Most educators will agree that the more we apply what we learn the better our understanding becomes.  If technology can make all these 21st Century  skills  easier for students, than why are most ed tech companies selling consumption tools?  This is the question that continues to befuddle.  Teachers and administrators must demand more.

If schools want to use technology to create and innovate than teachers need to see it in the real world.  Local experts can help teachers see how different tools are being used professionally.  Most professionals use email without thinking.  This is not a tech skill to measure schools by.  Take your teacher to work days could be a powerful bridge for schools.  Real life situations allow steachers and students to ask the magical question, why is it done that way?  Why not try this? Could it work.  This is where the technology can become a tool that allows us to research and test new ideas.  Skype, Hangouts & Facetime make it incredibly easy to change the classroom to a place where collaborating with experts become nothing more than a phone call.  The more times we ask why the more we can help students find ways to overcome.

The time factor is key to everything we do in schools and administrators must keep this in mind.  Learning technology beyond consumption takes time.  Working across classrooms takes time?  Collaborating with professionals takes time.  Make it happen!  Make that time available, find the money for training more so than just the technology.  Create the environment where teachers cant wait for the next learning day.  Compared with the dread of a fair amount of PD days across this country.  Re-imagine some of the professional development we place teachers in and build bridges for schools to better reflect community needs. As highlighted in this Edutopia article, 5 Tips to help teachers who struggle with technology, time and encouragement are very important but the biggest key missing is community and real world skills that teachers can be immersed in.  Test out the "take a teacher to work day" and share your results,  they  might truly amaze you.

If school is to become more than a technology consumption selling zone, educators must demand the time to make it happen.  If educators wont change they wont have to, technology will and can replace the all consuming classrooms.  Be what a computer cant!

The spring season brings orders for the next year.  Ask yourself before you purchase technology for your school: What can my students create with this?  What 21st Century skill will this help them develop?  How much time will this tool be used for consumption?  If you buy it for consumption please consider how much time our students spend OUTSIDE of school consuming through technology.

Millennials and Education

What's education worth?

As schools continue to address reform concerns it is amazing to wonder when or if education will evolve. American education needs a PR blitz or potentially a reality TV show that helps the public VALUE what possibilities education can provide.

A recent heated discussion has taken place about if high school students should have the opportunity to have open campus.   Students who have met their graduation requirements can opt to have open campus, which means they can go home or go to work or play music on a corner.  The requirement is simple, parents must sign off on for permission, they must complete four classes in the semester and they must be on track to graduate with the needed classes. Very simple concept but it highlights lots of issues that  are facing education.

The classes that are needed for graduation, the cores, have a distinct advantage in enrollment for most high school teachers.  The question than turns to if there are great electives, will students choose to be in those instead of escaping the school.  This creates an environment where teachers must look at their classes and ask the question, "are they valuable to students?"  Is it that simple?  Is there possibility to really improve classes by giving freedom to not attend?
 
Class size and value is debated in schools everywhere.  If a few students sign up for a class than does that mean it shouldn't be offered?  In my opinion, this is where schools have a chance to truly evolve.  Instead of only having the few classes that are offered under the  guidance of each teacher, schools could instead open up the playbook, so to speak.  This is where online/blended/face-to-face can run and meet the needs of students.  This wide open class catalog could have teachers guiding one, two, three, four or more classes during any given slot in the day.  Learning could be very individualized to students needs.  This fits nicely as a transition  between module based programs and traditional school schedules.

This debate brings up what I feel is a more compelling issue across this country, do we actually value education?  Parents have expressed that their students have earned the chance to do something else.  Really! What else is more important than education?  The world has changed and that is evident, learning is just fingertips away and schools are slow to catch up with the speed the world has changed.  With that said, parents, students and the general public have lost the value of exploring.  There is no other time in a students life when they truly have the freedom to try and explore lots of different educational classes.  This is the chance for schools and parents to help students learn all sorts of possible stuff, FOR FREE!

The question swings back to the schools and teachers, is what we offer students no longer useful to them?  School must address this issue.  This is a PR disaster that everyone in education  must take note of.  If we lose students to getting a nap and that is accepted, than schools will continue to be less and less valued.

Give the expectation than let them surprise you!

I have used Cel.ly for going on 3 years now.   It has been a great tool to communicate with my students.   It has lots of great options and their customer service is great.   With all that said I have embarked on a different path this year, I have students choosing how to use it.

Classes this year are set up as multinational businesses and they were challenged with communicating with all their employees.   Some resided in different class periods so the guidelines were however they choose to communicate it had to be in a way that could be recorded and could be used anytime, anywhere to join the discussion.   One group chose Cel.ly.

As I have observed this group they have exemplified what 21st century skills look and feel like.   The platform, Cel.ly, allows any device to be connected to the conversation.   Students have used iPhones, PC, iPad and Droids to connect.   They have discussed issues and concerns from 2 am  on a school night through midnight on a weekend.   They have shown great collaboration and teamwork.

I still feel Cel.ly is a great tool for teachers and schools but am just realizing it's so much more when you give it to the students.

They are going to drop out...

Keeping kids engaged and moving forward is always a challenge in school but today I was reminded of why education is at a crossroads.  As a discussion took place about a few students, everyone was left scratching their heads. We have brought parents in, check, didnt help.  We have gotten Family services involved, check to no avail.  We have added study halls, check, still failing and not attending regularly.  We have partnered students with student tutors and adult tutors, same result.  Then the statement of what can we do next and the answer we all struggled for is somewhere out there but we dont have it.  It's a fair chance this student is on the path towards dropping out.

All our solutions have fit in the box nicely.  The point I struggle with is maybe school needs to be built around the students better.  Most schools have students that bare the responsibility of growing up, getting to school, keeping up with school and surviving, so how do we reach them.  I am well aware that some students' "safe" place is at the school but what about the students who are safe outside of school?

Would online work for this student? Maybe, but not likely.  Would typical blended learning work, probably not because parents have given up. So now what?

I am continualling wondering if the old time family doctor model isnt the step we need here.  Would this type of blended envirnoment work?  Could the teachers go to the ranch or the where ever the student is working or located?  Could we partner with the employeers and use that environment and support to help the student build a cause for continuing?

I read about teachers and administrators finding students and bringing them to school but just maybe we are looking at this backword.  Lets load up the book mobile, take the technology, the experiments and go to them.  The work would now be real life and the homework would never be questioned about "what do I need this for"

I believe there are plenty of buisness models that could add there expertise to this new strategy, Avon, Schwan's, Tupperware etc.  SO the question now becomes could we?  And how can we?

Please ponder and share your thoughts, suggestions and possibilities.